So what went wrong for Dave?

[theyoungvisiter]

I felt like he got handed this election on a plate. How did it end up like this?

And what do you think the result means for his future?

because he's not worth it

Arf arf aitch

(While I have you here, can I nominate Animula's post about the candle-boy for the roundup!)

too late!

Dave has a wizened, pale-skinned portrait in his attic I tell you.

Perhaps Gordon's pasty, exhausted look won sympathy votes?! Also, Dave's night-time electioneering reminded me of Thatcher in a very bad way!

I think the media has got what it wanted. I think they deliberately hyped Clegg up through all of the debates and polls in order to put a spanner in Cameron's chances. I think they wanted a hung parliament all along, and they have now got it. The polls turned out to be lies, but they muddied the waters enough to stop Cameron getting a majority. I think they always wanted Clegg to restrain Cameron, and that is what we will now get. Clegg is a Tory and won't do a deal with Brown. Clegg may even ditch proportioanl representation, claiming that we are in a financial crisis and now is not the time to discuss that.

Yes, claig, must have been that darned lefty Murdoch what done it.

Murdoch backed that lefty Blair for years. Murdoch is not for left or right, Murdoch is for Murdoch. The big bad booger man image of Murdoch is much too simplistic and only serves to fool voters even more.

I think what we are living through now is pure theatre for our entertainment. It's already been decided. Brown will stand down and Clegg will do a deal with the Tories. They all know it. If you read between the lines of Jonathan Powell and Lance Price, who have just been on TV, and are Blair's old advisors, you can see that that is what will happen.

How can you say the press got what it wanted when the Mail and the Telegraph conducted a really quite vitriolic campaign against Clegg?!

Not to mention the Sun's front page yesterday.

I'd say the press in the main were all out for a Tory victory. They didn't get it, but it wasn't for want of trying.

I agree the debates did nothing for the process. They put the focus on the 3 leaders and DC did not come out of them well imo.

The cabinet and the shadow cabinet presence in all of this has been virtually non-existent and none of the leaders have proved strong enough to carry the whole of their party into power on their own.

Totally agree, YV.

I don't think Clegg can do a deal with the Tories while they oppose any form of PR or AV.

Last I heard they were still ruling that out - maybe the Tories will change their mind but until that point, I seriously doubt the Lib Dems will give them any support.

It may be a long time until another opportunity like this comes along.

I voted Labour instead of Lib Dem (which would have been a vote for Cons in my constituency) because I was concerned about the Cons policy of people power and worried that Children's Centres would be shut to all but the most socially deprived, enhancing potential social exclusion.

theyoungvisiter, I think much of politics is theatre. Some of what they say in the press is not for real. They are all part of the yah boo politics, ner ner ner ner ner and your side sucks. But behind closed doors, things are different. It will be behind closed doors that Clegg makes his deals and the papers will tell us a different story.

dumbing down of politics with the TV debates where people were brainwashed, didn't do their research and fell for other parties crap.

Thankfully, I think, I hope and pray Nick Clegg is shallow enough to go with TOry, as otherwise there would be uproar if a government with the 2 losers was formed. No doubt he would sell his policies down the river for abit of power

The fact that had he got an absolute majority in a month or two he would have split his skin open and revealed his inner Thatcher.

agree, A SecretLemonadeDrinker. Manipulated by the media and the polls and carried off an the crest of a wave, without thinking too deeply.

yes fair enough Claig - but as long as the Tories are saying publicly "no to PR" - how can they take a different position in private?

At the very least, they have to stop publicly ruling it out before there's the realistic prospect of a deal.

And the fact that, as someone said "Sincerity is the important thing. Once you can fake that you've got it made"

He couldn't.

theyoungvisiter, I don't know for sure, but I think we could very well see Clegg abandoning PR, pretending that he will look into it again later, but now the situation is too dire to make shabby political deals which are not in the national interest in this time of crisis. I think he protests too much about PR and he won't mind ditching it. That will be a great shame because I am for PR and I think most of the country now is. The current system is a farce, when good citizens turn out hoping that they can make a difference, when the Tories get millions more votes and don't get power, and where the Lib Dems get millions of votes and only a handful of seats. This is pure robbery of the people, what is the point in voting when it makes no difference. But maybe that's the way they like it.

well he's just made a statement saying basically the Tories need to convince him.

So I suppose we'll see!

The fact that had he got an absolute majority in a month or two he would have split his skin open and revealed his inner Thatcher.

Just because Tony Blair did that doesn't mean DC would, you know.

GrimmaTheNome, spot on

Dimbleby has asked Jon Sopel if he thinks it's all arranged, if it's all a foregone conclusion. Of course it is and has been for weeks now with the phony poll figures. Sopel denied it has all been arranged, but says that there is an appearance of choreography.